Sharif Digital Repository

Pricing for an insurance policy can be described as the process of calculation of expected compensation to be paid to property losers as well as associated costs of potential risks. Loss forecast is accurate if the risks will be identified appropriately in order to calculate the frequency and expected severity of losses.This is particularly important about environmental risks since most of them appear in the long run. Environmental risk assessment model is both able to estimate the environmental liability premium for environmental pollution and degradation, and it can play a valuable role in promoting this industry. ELIS (Environmental Liability Insurance) software calculates the... 

This paper presents an investigation of the dynamics of two coupled non-identical FitzHugh-Nagumo neurons with delayed synaptic connection. We consider coupling strength and time delay as bifurcation parameters, and try to classify all possible dynamics which is fairly rich. The neural system exhibits a unique rest point or three ones for the different values of coupling strength by employing the pitchfork bifurcation of non-trivial rest point. The asymptotic stability and possible Hopf bifurcations of the trivial rest point are studied by analyzing the corresponding characteristic equation. Homoclinic, fold, and pitchfork bifurcations of limit cycles are found. The delay-dependent stability... 

Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices have a strict necessity for power consumption to achieve the expected battery life. Therefore, measuring and optimizing the energy consumption of IoT nodes are essential. IoT nodes feature extreme current consumption range over 100 dB between their operating modes. The main focus of this article is to design and implement a low-power and low-cost current measurement circuit, which can be integrated into IoT nodes. A new pass element is introduced for measuring the current consumption. This element is placed in the current path to measure current over a high dynamic range with a constant voltage drop. The introduced pass element consists of a capacitor and... 

Magnetic components such as inductors have supreme importance in switch-mode power supplies (SMPS). The design of the SMPS circuit is typically based on the information obtained from simulations and available datasheets. However, the behavior of the implemented circuit can deviate from expectation due to its time-varying characteristics, operation point, and various environmental factors. Therefore, advanced methods are required to measure the behavior of inductors in-circuit. To address this challenge, an in-circuit measurement solution based on the energy transfer characteristic of the inductance is presented. It is a cost-effective and easy-to-implement solution that can be integrated... 

Originally, the application of nano zero valent iron/nickel (nZVI/Ni) particles for nitrate removal in porous media was studied. nZVI/Ni was prepared and employed in batch and continuous modes. Based on batch experiments, the reaction kinetics was consistent with the adsorption model by the order of 1-1.5. The variation of the kinetics order depends on pH and nickel content. So that highest reactivity was observed for nZVI with 10% of Ni at pH ≤ 3. Nitrate remediation in a continuous system was mostly influenced by seepage velocity, quantity and freshness of nZVI/Ni and particle size of porous media. In a batch mode, the maximum nitrate removal was 99% while in a continuous mode it did not... 

Originally, application of nano zero valent iron (nZVI) particles for the removal of lead (Pb2+) in porous media was studied. At first, stabilized nZVI (S-nZVI) was prepared and characterized, then used in batch and continuous systems. Based on the batch experiments, corresponding reaction kinetics well fitted with the pseudo-first-order adsorption model, and reaction rate ranged from 0.01 to 0.04 g/mg/min depend on solution pH and the molar ratio between Fe and Pb. In batch tests, optimal condition with more than 90% removal efficiency at 60 min was observed at a pH range of 4 to 6 and Fe/Pb ratio more than 2.5. Continuous experiments exposed that Pb2+ remediation was as well influenced by... 

Internet of Things (IoT) devices have strict necessity for power consumption in order to achieve expected battery life. IoT nodes feature extreme power consumption range over 100 dB, between their operating modes. The main focus of this paper is to design and implement a high precision, high dynamic range, low power, and flexible power measurement system, which can be applied to different applications. The proposed system consists of a voltage regulating control loop, zero offset amplifiers, high precision analog to digital converters, and reference voltage. The proper operation of the proposed circuit are verified numerically with simulations and experimental measurements. The implemented... 

The power consumption of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices is a major concern as it directly affects battery life. Therefore, measuring and monitoring the energy usage of IoT devices is vital. However, measuring the current consumption measurement of IoT devices is challenging as it must cover a wide range with low power consumption. In this paper, an improved design for the current measurement circuit is presented. The pass element which is placed in the current path to measure the current based on the charge and discharge of the capacitor is optimized to have reduced voltage drop, lower power consumption, decreased costs, and improved integration with IoT devices. The proposed circuit is... 

In the present work, a novel microextraction method named in situ solvent formation microextraction (ISFME) using ionic liquids (ILs) for preconcentration of carbaryl and carbofuran in water samples is introduced. In this method, a small amount of sodium hexafluorophosphate (NaPF6), as an ion pairing agent, was added to a sample solution containing a small quantity of 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate [Hmim][BF4] as a hydrophobic ionic liquid. A cloudy solution formed as a result of formation of fine droplets of 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate [Hmim][PF 6]. After centrifugation, the fine droplets of the extractant phase settled to the bottom of the conical-bottom... 

The optimum design of reinforced concrete cantilever retaining walls subjected to seismic loads is an extremely important challenge in structural and geotechnical engineering, especially in seismic zones. This study proposes an adaptive sperm swarm optimization algorithm (ASSO) for economic design of retaining structure under static and seismic loading. The proposed ASSO algorithm utilizes a time-varying velocity damping factor to provide a fine balance between the explorative and exploitative behavior of the original method. In addition, the new method considers a reasonable velocity limitation to avoid the divergence of the sperm movement. The proposed algorithm is benchmarked with a set... 

Pulse Repetition Interval (PRI) Modulation Detection is an important subsystem of a typical electronic warfare support system. In this paper, a robust, fast, and well designed structure for detection of simple and complex PRI modulations based on statistical and sequential analysis of Pulse Repetition Interval (PRI) is proposed. Accuracy and robustness of the technique against electromagnetic noise are demonstrated via simulations  

To address sustainability challenges appeared in today's power grids, it is essential for emerging demand control paradigm to be adapted more to the lifestyle of the customers. In this paper, due to the ever-growing interconnectivity of the grids, a distributed Commodity Market (CM) framework is proposed in which intelligent agents embedded inside of customers want to maximize their preferred welfare through real-time demand of power from an energy market. Since there is not a comprehensive model for the grids, utilizing Reinforcement Learning (RL) proves that the global optimal performance is achieved in the Nash Equilibrium (NE) of the proposed framework. This solution not only maximizes... 

A new and efficient model for calculation of the unsteady hydrodynamic loads on an oscillating plate in two-dimensional flow is proposed. In order to compute the hydrodynamic loads, an unsteady hydrodynamic model is derived using the boundary-element method along with the potential flow assumption. To this aim, the steady boundary of cavity is determined by a full-nonlinear iterative procedure. Thereafter, assuming that amplitude and frequency of oscillations are so that the length of cavity in unsteady flow remains intact, simulation of the unsteady hydrodynamic flow is performed by imposing some velocity perturbations over the steady cavity solutions. Consequently, based on this... 

The functionality of multi-stimuli-responsive hydrogels in physiological states is the reason for the increased attention of hydrogels nowadays. Multi-stimuli-responsive hydrogels exhibit tunable changes in swelling or mechanical properties in response to predetermined combinations of stimuli such as pH, temperature, ionic strength, electric field, magnetic field, light, chemical triggers, enzyme concentration, redox species, reactive oxygen species (ROS), and glucose levels. This review summarizes the recent advances in multi-stimuli-responsive hydrogels used in medical approaches. The first part of the review highlights the medical applications of polymer-based and supramolecular hydrogels... 

Abstraction of hydrogen atom from DNA and RNA subunits leads to formation of a neutral radical. The formation of these radicals can lead to harmful structural alternations and formation of multiple lesions in helixes of DNA and RNA. In the present work, we explore theoretically energetic and structural properties of the possible radicals formed via hydrogen atom abstraction at various sites of sugar part of cytosine nucleosides by employing B3LYP exchange-correlation functional with 6-311++G (d,p) orbital basis sets. Two types of free radicals may be found by hydrogen abstraction of sugar part of cytosine nucleosides: carbon centered radicals and the oxygen centered radicals. The computation... 

The radical cations of DNA constituents generated by the ionizing radiation initiate an alteration of the bases, which is one of the main types of cytotoxic DNA lesions. These cation radical spices are known for their role in producing nucleic acid strand break. In this study, the gas-phase intrinsic chemical properties of the gaseous radical cations of cytosine and its base pair with guanine were examined by employing density functional theory (B3LYP) with the 6-311++G(d,p) basis set. Structures, geometries, adiabatic ionization energies, adiabatic electron affinities, charge distributions, molecular orbital analysis and proton-transfer process of these molecules were investigated. The... 

In this paper, we explore theoretically energetic and structural properties of the possible cations formed via hydride ion abstraction at various sites of sugar part of cytosine nucleosides by employing B3LYP exchange-correlation functional with 6-311++G (d,p) orbital basis sets. In general, the hydride ion abstracted sugar cations of cytosine nucleosides have the following stability sequence: caH2′ > caH1′ > caH3′ > caH4′ > caH5′ for cytidine and caH1′ > caH4′ > caH3′ > caH5′ > caH2′ for deoxycytidine. Furthermore, the effect of solvent environment on the stability order of cations integral equation formalism of the polarized model (IEF-PCM) was employed to model aqueous solution. The... 

Titania nanoparticles with high photocatalytic activity were prepared from titanium alkoxide dissolved in alcohol and water under acidic conditions. The effects of the key parameters including (alkoxide/water) ratio, (alkoxide/alcohol) ratio, precursor type, solvent type, type and concentration of stabilizer, calcination temperature, presence of methylcellulose (MC) and hydrothermal treatment were studied. The optimal conditions were obtained through an experimental design technique. This technique is also used to find the main factors influencing the degradation of methylene blue (MB) and mass percent of anatase phase. The powders characteristics were investigated by XRD and... 

Langmuir probes (LP) are the most common diagnostics for the local measurement of very important plasma parameters such as plasma density, electron temperature, plasma potential and the electron energy distribution function (EEDF). In this paper the applicability of the first derivative Langmuir probe method in processing the electron part of the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics in IR-T1 Tokamak is reported. The EEDF at different radial positions in the edge region and Scrape off Layer (SOL) are derived and the values of the plasma potential, electron temperature and electron density are estimated. Results comparison between the first derivative method and Stangeby method shows a... 

This paper presents a new method to simultaneously optimize components' size, set points of the control system and slope of PV panels of standalone hybrid energy systems (HESs) using the Passive Congregation PSO (PSOPC) approach. New control set points are defined for the HES, and a new operation strategy is presented based on the defined set points. The optimization algorithm determines the optimal values of the set points to efficiently optimize the HES operation. The effectiveness of the proposed control set points is finally verified through some numerical analyses. In this regard, the proposed optimization method is employed to optimize various HES configurations and compared with other...